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Tight Ends

Scholarship-Eligibility Quotient: 2.67 All Players | 2.33 Scholarship Players

For an explanation of the Scholarship-Eligibility Quotient, see here.

Some of these guys used to be called fullbacks, but since offensive coordinator David Yost pretty much only runs out of 11 personnel, there’s no need for a fullback any longer or we’ll just call any blocking back a tight end. Make no mistake that the tight end will be utilized, the tight ends were targeted 14% at Utah State last year whereas the only tight end targeted last year was Donta Thompson and that was just 2 times all year. That’s going to change so get ready for that. The key is though that the tight end has to be able to block, and with a dedicated tight ends coach who is probably a bit more accustomed to coaching blocking, Luke Wells, expect these guys to block a lot more. And it is hard to criticize the numbers here, this is a position that the Kingsbury coaching staff just started to recruit last year and Matt Wells added to it with Koontz. I’d expect at least one high school tight end moving forward per class.

Receivers

Scholarship-Eligibility Quotient: 3.35 All Players | 3.18 Scholarship Players

For an explanation of the Scholarship-Eligibility Quotient, see here.

I’m being a bit presumptuous with the transfer of McLane Mannix as I don’t think it has officially been announced by the staff, but this helps the experience factor quite a bit if he can play. Right now, there’s really only 3 experienced receivers, Collins, Vasher, and Carter with some of the redshirt freshmen getting time last year, but doing it in Big 12 action is much different than doing it in non-conference situations.

There was also this rumor that was passed around a bit that Xavier Martin may switch back to quarterback and I don’t know anything about that. I guess we’ll see, but he’d certainly have an opportunity this year to get some time, he’s built to be a slot receiver, but he needs to follow his heart and if he’s not fully committed as a receiver, then don’t do it.

You’d like to see this Scholarship Eligibility Quotient closer to 2.75 because what the 3.18 or 3.35 means is that there’s really no experience returning. Lots of fresh faces and we’ll see if they can play.